A sign signals the start of the roundabout on M-20/U.S.-10 Business Route at the Patrick Road crossover. Daily News file photo

A sign signals the start of the roundabout on M-20/U.S.-10 Business Route at the Patrick Road crossover. Daily News file photo

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A semi truck navigates the roundabout on M-20/U.S.-10 Business Route at the Patrick Road crossover in this Daily News file photo.

A semi truck navigates the roundabout on M-20/U.S.-10 Business Route at the Patrick Road crossover in this Daily News file photo.

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Roundabouts seen as success, nuisance across Midland

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While one Midland roundabout is coming up on its one-year anniversary, another is drawing criticism from local businesses even as officials tout its benefits.

The project to build a roundabout interchange on M-30 near the U.S. 10 interchange is going smoothly, according to Bill Mayhew, manager of MDOT’s Transportation Service Center in Mount Pleasant. Run by the Michigan Department of Transportation, the project budget totaled $1.5 million.

The M-20/U.S. 10 business route interchange has been utilizing the roundabout design since July 2014 and is proving successful in reducing the severity and number of traffic accidents.

About the M-30 project

A detour started Monday will end just before the Fourth July weekend, just in time for motorists on their way to vacation spots. There have been a few calls with questions and concerns about the project, but Mayhew said construction crews are working hard to get it done right.

Mayhew added that a different detour or opening part of the roadway were considered but were ultimately decided to not be feasible.

“It’s a narrow area at the tie-in point,” Mayhew said. “There’s no room to safely construct it and have traffic go through there at the same time.”

He compared this project with the construction along Eastman Avenue, saying there will be more windows of opportunity to pave the roundabout versus the flatter and more level Eastman Avenue that collects water more readily.

How area businesses are reacting

The streets of Sanford are bare, according to Dan Clark, who has owned and operated Clark’s One Stop gas station at 3116 N. Meridian Road since 1976.

“There is no business,” Clark said. “It’s a ghost town.”

He called the roundabout project and the resulting detour an “inconvenience” for business, his customers and his employees, and said he recently cut back on business hours and work shifts for his five employees.

“The next couple of weeks will be pretty slim paychecks for them,” Clark said.

While there is still a trickle of customers, most of Clark’s business comes from motorists traveling south on Meridian who are now being diverted to Shaffer Road.

A better alternative would have been to put in a speed radar sign and drop the speed limit over the U.S. 10 overpass to limit the number of accidents, Clark said, instead of a roundabout design.

“People are going to abuse it, cut across or make mistakes,” Clark said. “The big trucks are going to have a heck of a time navigating it, so I’m not happy about it.

“I haven’t had one person tell me it was a good idea. And I’ve had a lot of people voice their opinion.”

Most of those people have been customers, and the number Clark is servicing dwindles each day.

“To do this and close off the highway and make an inconvenience for people and the businesses up there, they should have put more personnel down there to get it done quicker so we can get back to our everyday life,” Clark said.

Despite the roundabout, Clark said, the detour itself is still a pain because of the timing.

“Summers you are making the money to survive the winter; this is the time we should be making money but that’s the way it is,” Clark said.

Sanford Whippy Dip owner Dean Davis says the detour is really slowing down business, “just about to a standstill.” It’s the fourth season of the ice cream shop but few customers have stopped in for cold treats lately.

“We’d be just packed with the weather the way it is, and I’ve had one customer so it is really affecting me,” Davis said.

The construction and detour has prompted Davis to open up later into the evening around the time business finally arrives, and customers are not coming in with a smile on their faces.

“They’re not very happy, to be honest,” Davis said. “It takes them so long to get around.”

The end result

Even with the commotion it has caused among area businesses, Mayhew said roundabouts are an important tool for transportation officials when working to improve dangerous intersections.

“They are definitely a huge safety factor,” Mayhew said. “They reduce 75 percent of the accidents and these are nationwide statistics.”

The M-20/U.S. 10 Business Route roundabout was built a year ago and is proof of those statistics, Mayhew said, with any accidents being lessened in frequency and intensity.

City of Midland Engineer Brian McManus says he has heard the roundabout is performing “really well.”

A City Council presentation on the one-year statistics is being planned for the fall and Mayhew said he expects some positive reactions.

“I think they will be pleasantly surprised at how few accidents there really have been and the non-seriousness of what little accidents there have been,” Mayhew said.

That impact — or lack of it — could lead to more roundabouts being built around Midland. One is already in the works for Mount Pleasant.

“In the future, I see more coming as they save lives and reduce accidents,” Mayhew said.